Thousands of unpaid carers to face DWP repayment demands during overhaul

Ministers admit carer’s allowance penalties will continue while review of more than 200,000 cases is carried out Thousands of unpaid carers will continue to be hit with hefty and potentially unfair benefit repayment demands, it has emerged, as a government initiative gets under way to fix welfare injustices that have drawn comparison to the Post Office scandal. Ministers will on Monday launch an audit of more than 200,000 historical carer’s allowance benefit cases, with an estimated 25,000 carers issued with unlawful overpayments since 2015 likely to see their repayment debts cancelled or reduced as a result. The so-called reassessment exercise marks a big step in the government’s attempt to “put right” systemic injustices that led to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable carers having debts of up to £20,000 through no fault of their own. However, the government has admitted its existing “business as usual” overpayment recovery policies will be maintained while a full overhaul of the benefit is completed, in effect ensuring that carer’s allowance penalties will continue to be imposed. Furthermore, it is still unclear how ministers will compensate thousands more carers who were unlawf